Mondes En D Veloppement 2014 2 N 166

Ce numéro est disponible en ligne en texte intégral sur www.cairn.info

Ce numéro est disponible en ligne en texte intégral sur www.cairn.info

Ce numéro est disponible en ligne en texte intégral sur www.cairn.info

During much of the twentieth century, informal employment and entrepreneurship was commonly depicted as a residue from a previous era. Its continuing presence was seen to be a sign of "backwardness" whilst the formal economy represented "progress". In recent decades, however, numerous studies have revealed not only that informal employment is extensive and persistent but also that it is growing relative to formal employment in many populations. Whilst in the developing world, the informal economy is often found to be the mainstream economy, nevertheless, in the developed world too, informality is currently still estimated to account for notable per cent of GDP. The Informal Economy: Exploring Drivers and Practices intends to engage with these issues, providing a much-need ‘contextualised’ approach to explain the persistence and growth of forms of informal economic practices and entrepreneurial activities in the twenty-first century. Using a diverse range of empirical case studies from Europe, Africa, North Africa and Asia, this book unpacks the different varieties of forms of informal work and entrepreneurship and provides a critical analysis of existing theorisations used to explain such phenomena. This book’s aim is to examine the nature and persistence of informal work and entrepreneurship, across a variety of empirical settings, from within the developed world, the developing world and within transformation economies within post-socialist spaces. Given its worldwide, interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approach and recent interest in the informal economies by a number of disciplines and organisations, this book will be of vital reading to those operating in the fields of: Economics, political economy and management, Human and economic geography and Economic anthropology and sociology as well as development studies

This book contributes to the adoption of agricultural technology in general and to literature on the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) in particular by identifying the factors that influence the decision to adopt SRI and examining SRI’s impact on household income and yield. The study also discusses the importance of SRI in achieving higher rice productivity and food security. Conducted on behalf of the Government of India’s Ministry of Agriculture from October 2014 to March 2016, the study collected detailed and extensive household-level data. As the second largest producer and consumer, India plays an important role in the global rice economy. Food security in India has been traditionally defined as having a sufficient supply of rice at an affordable price. However, in recent years rice cultivation in India has suffered from several interrelated problems. Increased yields achieved during the green revolution period and with the help of input-intensive methods involving high water and fertiliser use are now showing signs of stagnation and concomitant environmental problems due to salinisation and waterlogging of fields. Water resources are also limited; as such, water for irrigation must contend with increasing industrial and urban needs. As a result of all these factors, rice farmers have experienced a downturn in productivity growth. Since increasing the area of rice cultivation is not feasible, the additional production has to be achieved using less land, less water and fewer additional inputs. The new intensification methods for rice cultivation known as the System of Rice Intensification (SRI), which originated in Madagascar, offer a promising systemic approach to enhancing rice production at affordable costs by simultaneously reducing input requirements and causing less harm to the environment. The SRI approach is expected to enhance yield and substantially reduce water and other input requirements by altering plant, soil, water and nutrient management practices. With SRI taking firm root in India, the book examines and analyses the adoption and the economic impact of SRI in three major rice producing States of India: Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa.

Tourism research often tends to overlook both the mundane of the exotic and the exotic of the everyday. However, when acknowledging that exoticism is not necessarily linked to geographical distance, it is similarly possible to attribute touristic otherness to and experience unfamiliarity in a geographically proximate environment. This entails a need to rethink the intertwining relationships of meanings of the exotic and the mundane, as well as the ways people make meaning of their everyday environment through processes of territorialization and identification in a tourism context. The articles collected in this book cover a range of examples of tourism practices in a context of geographical proximity where home and away, everyday life and tourism intersect. While the settings, methodologies and concepts vary considerably, each contribution is an attempt to rethink the hegemonic linear framing of tourism in dichotomies such as familiar and unfamiliar, nearby and far, host and guest, mundane and exotic. The examples, findings and conclusions of the various authors contribute to an understanding of tourism that is multiple and relative, to an open-minded and critical attitude towards the institutionalized anchors of our society - in which tourism takes such a prominent place that it has almost become ordinary. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Tourism Geographies journal.

Over time there has been a miscommunication between mainstream economics and human rights that has paved the way to a justificatory ideology that validates the submission of human rights to the logic of market capitalism. This book shows how the discourse of mainstream economics is intrinsically opposed to the strengthening of human rights and outlines the principles upon which a human rights-based political economy can be built. Considering a variety of recognized human rights, such as the right to water and sanitation, the right to social security, the right to work, cultural freedom and democracy, this book describes how mainstream economics theory conflicts with these rights and explores alternative modes of thinking that incorporate human rights concerns into economics. Moreover, the book also reflects on the teaching of political economy for human rights. It sets out that a political economy favourable to human rights must be pluralist, interdisciplinary, participatory, de-commodified, non-utilitarian and non-consequentialist. The author proposes that it must not only assume the performative character of economics but also, and especially, its transformative purpose. Political Economy for Human Rights will offer students, academics, activists and policy makers useful tools to understand some of the main contradictions of contemporary societies and new paths leading to a more just and fraternal world. It will also be of great interest to the general public concerned with human rights and economic issues.